The book grocer’s coffers are chockfull of goodies this week, so let’s jump right in and get shopping... Monday: Crikey. Take a look at author and critic George Steiner’s publishing credits and you have to wonder whether the man has actually slept in the past fifty years. Yet the premise of the prolific writer’s most recent work, My Unwritten Books, is that there are actually some subjects that Steiner has purposely left unexplored. Join......

Congratulations – you can read! (Presumably. Unless you just look at Londonist for the pictures.) Literacy is sexy. Hyper-literacy, even sexier. Or so we at Londonist tell ourselves as we don our Coke-bottle glasses and curl up each night with a bottle of wine and a dictionary. But enough about our steamy Valentine’s Day plans. What have you got planned? Now, you may have inferred that we’re a jaded lot over here at Londonist.......

Fresh out of Reading, the well named Pete and The Pirates are currently making their way round the country, stopping off at Soho's Borderline on January 29. Energetic and pacey, we first came across them when the awesome Good Weather for Air Strikes highlighted them as a tip from CMJ 2007. The Borderline gig is 14+ and the official launch party for their jaunty new single 'Mr Understanding' and they'll be supported by Let's......

Editors start a three night residency at Brixton Academy on Monday (17.50, here) but the real treat has to be Reading's squelchy electro boys Does It Offend You Yeah? shuffling their stuff at Barfly. Campy London trio Palladium are at Madame JoJos (£7, here and dreamy Canadian shoegazers Stars play The Scala . The incredibly bouncy Operator Please have flown in from Australia on Tuesday to take part in the NME Freshers tour alongside The......

The statisticians are at it again. Trying to connect A-B but, just for fun, popping into every shop along the way. Sketching trends with a pencil as there is insufficient data to ink them in. Reading significance into very little. Missing the point. A new survey by the University of East London has produced a map portraying religious segregation in the capital, which concludes that religion is a bigger dividing factor in the city than......

As half the music biz is spread out in muddy fields across the country, expect few new on-sales this week. However the best of them are outlined below… UNKLE is back after a three-year absence from music for a show at London's Roundhouse on Friday 16 November in support of new album 'War Stories'. Tickets go on sale at 9am tomorrow. Prefer things a bit heavier? Then Avenged Sevenfold play an intimate gig at......

In 1974 an entire army was discovered buried in a huge mausoleum constructed for the First Emperor of China. The site, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is still being excavated and was truly a chance discovery of epic and incredible proportions. But it's in China. Lucky London, then, as twelve of Emperor Qin Shihuang's life-like and life-sized underground warriors have crossed continents to form the centrepiece of a major new British Museum exhibition......

As bands jump across the Atlantic to play this weekend's V Festival and next weekend's Reading and Leeds festivals London is treated to a wealth of bands that rarely play these shores. Here's a selection of the best. Monday night sees the amazing Rilo Kiley play the Carling Academy Islington – tickets sold out pretty quickly, but there are a few floating around on eBay etc for what is sure to be one of their......

From The Garage to new(ish) venue Bardens Boudoir, the Daughters of Kaos have been causing mayhem with their polysexual Club Motherfucker for the last 4 years. Mixing performances from cool up and coming artists with different guest DJs every week, you can expect sleazy electro, indie beats and well just whatever anyone feels like playing. The next (and last till September)Club Mofo is this Saturday 14th July, so if you like the sound of......

Violent crime is on the rise in London and you can’t pick up a paper or turn on the news without the latest report of stabbings, beatings, muggings and even murder. It’s disturbing that the Justice system, crippled by overcrowded jails and soft sentencing guidelines, often punishes inequitably to the crime. However, we have it good in comparison to Ye Olde London Town who suffered waves of crime with such alarming titles as "Assault......

If you played video games in the 90s, chances are that you also read Digitiser, Channel 4's Teletext games magazine. It was renowned not only for its incisive, honest gaming news, but also for the surreal humour of lead writer Mr. Biffo, which was responsible for breaking the brains of teenagers all over the land. Snakes in hoodies would "cuss each other bad" alongside the letters page, Insincere Dave analysed the day's news, and......

Busy week for presales with everyone announcing their autumn tours. All tickets are on sale on Friday at 9am, unless otherwise stated. Klaxons are finishing off a triumphant year with a date at Brixton Academy on Wednesday 5th December, though expect more dates to be added quickly. They sold out four nights at Brixton earlier this year, now those mad Canadians known as Arcade Fire have announced a date at Alexandra Palace on Saturday November......

I've discussed my disinclination to leave my house to see live music in this column before, along with the irony that I expect others to do the exact same thing to see me play. What can I say, I'm a fickle artist! It's not that I don't love and appreciate human beings making music right in front of me, but that there are so many factors that can get in the way of my......

Missed out on tickets to Glastonbury? Can't wait til the end of the summer for Reading festival? Wish all the cool festivals were on your doorstep? No need to worry as we have the answer. Get yourselves down to Stoke Newington (yes, you did read that right) on Sunday 10th June and go and party at Stokefest 2007. It's London's very own mini festival right in the middle of Hackney. OK, so it's not......

Lots on sale tomorrow morning and today, so straight in we go. First up, Smashing Pumpkins have announced a one off date at Shepherds Bush Empire on Tuesday 19th June, ahead of their (sure to be) sensational return to Reading and Leeds Festivals. Tickets are sure to go quickly, so make sure you're there are 9:30 tomorrow morning to catch them. Londonist favourite Mika has announced two London shows as part of a full UK......

Lots of big events and comebacks on sale tomorrow, so we'll jump straight in: First up as some of you may be aware Prince has announced 21 shows throughout the summer in London, including 8 nights at the O2 arena, playing on Wednesday 1st, Friday 3rd, Saturday 4th, Tuesday 7th, Friday 10th, Saturday 11th and Tuesday 14th August. Expect these to sell out quickly when they go on sale tomorrow morning at 9am, at......

Email. Who could live without it these days? Well, according to the World Internet Usage Stats more people than you might think! Only 40% of Europe is online and only a measly 4% of Africa. The latter stat is shocking when you count up all the scam emails that we receive every day promising us untold wealth through lottery wins, letting money "rest" in our accounts and righting the monetary wrongs of evil dictatorships.......

Rarely has our flabber been so gasted as when we heard Charlton Athletic manager Alan Pardew on the radio last week recounting his half-time words to Graham Poll, the referee of his side's Premiership match against Reading, regarding Charlton's influential midfielder Alexandre Song who had been booked in the first half: I said, 'If he makes another challenge which you are unhappy about ­I cannot do anything if it is a silly one, I......

The musical surprise for a couple of the music team here at Londonist last year was a visit to Bestival. The boutique festival held on the Isle of Wight was a marvellous three days of brilliant music, fancy dress and nice people - about as far away from Reading as you could get. Holding the Bestival empire is Rob Da Bank and his Sunday Best team and tonight they're giving you a taste of......

We introduced Charlotte Hatherley's new EP a few weeks ago and since then have been dancing round London listening to her 2nd album The Deep Blue. Lead single I Want You To Know is out in late February but until then myspace has a couple of things to keep you going. A Chiswick girl, we spoke to Charlotte about her music and good ol' London. You quit Ash last year, why did you want......

Morden’s Good Shoes have spent the past 2 years since their formation in 2005 traipsing around the UK and Europe with their brand of two-and-half-minute guitar pop with a hint of a punk edge. Comprised of lead singer/guitarist Rhys Jones, guitarist Steve Leach, bassist Joel Cox, and drummer Tom Jones, they have already released 3 singles, played at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, and been mentioned in the NME (but then again, who hasn’t).......

The Londonist Literary List appears (almost) every Tuesday. If you'd like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. STOP THE PRESS: We have a late edition to the list, "Golden Handcuffs - Scandals, Drugs & Lies" by Polly Courtney is being launched on Thursday 12 - 2pm and promises "A cynical, gritty look at what it really means to sell your soul to the city." D202, St. Clements Building, London School......

Fell City Girl consist of Phil McMinn on vocals/guitar, Joe Gibbons on guitar, Adam Drake on bass and James "Shrek" Pamphilon on drums. They've been around a couple of years now, and by all accounts have been pretty busy boys, opening both the Carling Reading and Leeds weekends, supporting Longview on a UK tour and playing three sell out gigs in their native Oxford's Zodiac. They say they're here to break your heart and......

This Day in London's History Best stay at home today. 16 October seems to be a date of doom and/or gloom for the capital. (And, incidentally, it's also Davina MaCall's birthday.) 1834: Disastrous fire at Westminster. What Guy Fawkes et al. had failed to do 200 years earlier, a bundle of old tally sticks managed in 1834. The outmoded accounting tools were set for disposal. Dickens sums up what happened next: It came to......

Reading Reserves 0 Tottenham Hotspur Reserves 1 Madejski Stadium, Reading Wednesday 4th October 2006 As we suggested a month ago, you’re unlikely to be watching anybody playing in a Premiership reserve fixture these days who could legally be served in a bar in America. Last night a 71st minute close range header from Northern Ireland under-19 captain Kieran McKenna, set up by a far post nod from Czech youth international Tomas Pekhart following a......

Event of the Week: London Design Festival highlights Eh? London Design Festival? In a science column? Well, good design is important in everything, including labs and medical wards. The Royal Institution, in association with the Design Festival, bring the point home at 'Imagine: Healthier by Design' at the RCA tomorrow. A panel of designers and medical practitioners will assemble to debate, for example, how the patient's life can be made less stressful through good......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you'd like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. Tonight Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award way back in 2003, discusses his writing and latest book A Spot of Bother. £8.50 at the Royal Festival Hall, 7:45 pm in the Purcell Room, find out more. Kevin McCloud......

If going to Reading to get your music fix simply didn't do it for you, and the delights of this week's Bestival don't fill you with the desire to get on a hovercraft, then you might want to take a look at a festival that's a little more adventurous, and as yet unspoiled by British yobs: Iceland Airwaves. Held in Reykjavik from October 18-22, the festival is like Sonar in the sense of taking......

100 known troublemakers have already been arrested ahead of this weekend's Notting Hill Carnival. Not only that but metal detectors will be in full force at tube stations on the day. Just remember not to call it shit. An influx of immigrants into Britain has pushed the UK population above 60 million for the first time ever. Pluto is finally stripped of it's planetary status after fierce arguments at the International Astronomical Union yesterday.......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event of the Week Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, from Monday Roll up, roll up, for the premier event in London’s popular science calendar. The annual Summer Science Exhibition is when the Royal Society fills up its halls with (a) top British scientists, (b) cool stuff to play with......